1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a document processing apparatus and method that creates and executes a job flow wherein a plurality of processes cooperate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-287859 discloses a service processing apparatus that is capable of combining, either in series or in parallel, such processes as fax transmission, scanning, and printing that are to be carried out on a document data, and setting and executing the processes as a job flow. Using the service processing apparatus that is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-287859, it is possible to make each respective device that is connected via a network cooperate to execute a plurality of processes that are set to be executed as a job flow.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-287859, it is possible to execute a plurality of processes as a single service by making each respective device that is connected via a network cooperate. Issues such as the following arise, however, because no consideration has been given to the handling of data for which security has been applied:    1. The job flow may quit before completion with an error, depending on the security that is applied;    2. It is difficult to create a job flow that takes into consideration the security that is applied to the data that is to be manipulated by the job flow, owing to the fact that the security may vary tremendously depending on the user that instructs the execution of the job flow, i.e., the user executing the job flow; and    3. If the user who receives the data does not possess authorization to access the data, the job flow that is executed will have been to no purpose, even if it is completed successfully.